I only listen to Christian music.
By just that line, almost every reader has already got assumptions of me, this article and everything that I believe in. And I'm sure some of you have scrolled down and went straight into the BBS to start telling me how that's crazy and ridiculous without even reading the rest of this article. I'm here to explain something, so please listen up before making predictions about me, this article or anything else.
Let me clear one thing up before I get into this:
Accepting - tolerate or accommodate oneself to; respect.
Conforming - to correspond in form or character; be similar, to act or be in accord or agreement; comply
Christian Music - when the artist/band are Christians and their music reflects on they're belief.
To get right into this, I'm simply going to state something that won't be a surprise to anyone. I'm a Christian. Being a Christian doesn't mean I go around shouting, "I believe in God, and if you don't, that's wrong!"; it's not my place to tell someone if they're wrong or not. I believe what I believe and the same goes for you. I accept whatever it is that you believe in, but I will not conform because what you believe in is for you. What I believe in is for me. This is all I'm asking from you with accepting in what kind of music I listen to.
Christian music has such a stereotype. Some people think of it as people in a choir singing hymns, or just gospel music. And there is some music like that, but that's not the kind of music I'm talking about. I listen to the same genres of music you guys do! I'm not that weird, honestly. :) The only thing that is different is that the people who I'm singing along with share the same beliefs as me.
Something I hear a lot is, "You have no variety in music!" This just shows me that you haven't ever heard Christian music. You name a genre, and I can name hundreds of amazing Christian artists/bands, that I'm sure you wouldn't even be able to tell that they were Christian unless you looked at the lyrics. Also something common I hear is, "You must get sick of your music after a while". There is nothing that could be further from the truth. I am always getting new music and hearing about great new bands. I'm constantly listening to music (ask any of my friends ? I am ALWAYS listening to music. ;)). And I have more songs on my iPod than most of my friends who listen to secular music. So, I definitely have a great selection. And yes, all of my friends do listen to secular music. I have yet to meet anyone who also only listens to Christian music, but that doesn't mean I think everyone else is wrong for listening to other music. That's not it at all. You can be a very strong Christian and not only listen to Christian music; it's just for some people, and not for others. I'm not going to go into why I believe this is for me right now ? that's a different story and for another time maybe ;)
"Only listening to Christian music narrows down your selection"
Correct, you are! But that goes the same for you. NOT listening to Christian music also narrows down your selection. Whether you want to believe it or not, there is a LOT of great Christian music out there, and you may just be missing out. I'm sure you guys think I'm missing out, too though. So we're even, right?
A few of the Christian bands that people seem to really like include: Underoath, Flyleaf, Family Force 5, Haste The Day, Falling Up, mewithoutYou, Skillet, Until June, Elventyseven, Stellar Kart, The Almost, As I Lay Dying, Switchfoot, The Rocket Summer and Relient K. But there are millions more!
One more thing I want to share before I wrap this up. I love music, more than almost anything else. And no one has any right to say I don't just because I only listen to Christian music.
I believe that only listening to Christian music is for me, not necessarily for you, whether you're a Christian or not. I'm not trying to conform anyone into listening to Christian music, all I am is asking you to accept it and before you go around bashing it, you should at least try it.
I'd love to answer any questions you have about this, so don't be scared to ask! :) And if you're interested in hearing some Christian music (to see for yourself how it sounds the same as regular music), just ask me and I'll recommend a few bands to you with the genre that you like best! Thanks for your time, and I'd love to hear your opinions and such about this, but please remember to be respectful in the BBS!
Yours truly always and forever <3,
andrea(ppd)
